Three Management Mistakes in Customer Development
Leaders reveal three mistakes made when managing customer development, sales projects and team members.
#1: Not coaching and training veteran business developers.
CEO’s and Business Development (BD) managers often believe that a person with extensive BD experience doesn’t need continuous training and coaching. Not true. Take a look at the NFL. It has some of the most talented players showing up to work every day. Those players have offensive coaches, defensive coaches and a head coach. The athletic world realizes something that the business world often misses: repetition is the key to mastery. Skills must be constantly honed and knowledge updated. A playbook that worked last year may not work against the competitor this year.
#2: High tech versus high touch.
Email is a mode of communication. It is not a leadership tool and is actually decreasing many leaders ability to connect with their teams at a deeper level. A basic need in all human beings is the need to feel recognized and important. Incentives are nice, but really listening and paying attention increases motivation and loyalty. It means being present and focusing on the team member and their specific goals and challenges during a 1:1 session. Don’t check your blackberry every five minutes or always take that ever important phone call. Decide and be aware of where you want to be: on the phone or with the team member.
#3: Ground Hog Day BD Meetings.
Top BD and sales generators don’t want their time wasted. And many BD meetings are ineffective due to poor planning. There is no agenda prepared sending a clear message this is a ‘wing it meeting.’ Or there is the ‘roll call’ meeting: top 10 customers targets, (again) where they are in the sales pipeline and anticipated close date. Effective BD meetings have an agenda and dig deeper into issues. They discuss effective strategies and tactics for finding qualified customers; test the team’s selling skills by asking qualifying questions to see if the prospect is really qualified to be in the pipeline. Effective BD meetings are set-up to include training, thought leadership and recognition.
There are several reasons why the end result of selling and developing business can be stressful and difficult. Yet the responsibility for ensuring that the Business Development (BD) team is successful lies entirely with leadership.
Co-authored by Colleen Stanley and Kendall Colman, Colman & Company, LLC.
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